Qixi Festival
by the-cloud-whisperer
Summary: Zukaang Week 2018, Day 5 (Duty vs Love) and Day 6 (Mythology) On Qixi Festival （七夕節）, Aang retells the story of the Cowherd and the Weaver to Zuko, and they envision their future together.


**A/N:** Set in early Republic City days, about 20 years post-canon, though with the advent of the new Imbalance trilogy comics, I'm not sure how quickly they intend to accelerate the development of Republic City. That's okay, though; it doesn't have to follow the real canon timeline.

Qixi Festival is celebrated on the seventh day of the seventh lunar month (early to mid-August), also known as Chinese Valentine's Day because of the romantic legend behind it. As is always the case when I incorporate Chinese folklore into fics, this may or may not reflect the most canonical narrative. Most Chinese myths have many variations, and no one in particular is correct. If you want to think of my other fic (Mid-Autumn Festival) and this one as set in the same continuous universe, you can. Basically Zuko and Aang can't stop comparing their love to ancient legendary couples with sad backstories XD

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 **One – Young Love**

Once, they were star-crossed lovers, literally. He was the Cowherd Star, a diligent shepherd of heaven, and his lover was the Weaver Star, brightest among the celestial host, son of the Heavenly Emperor himself. The Cowherd's job was to gather the stars in the sky each night and lead them across the perilous expanse to their safe home in the ocean. The Weaver guides his way, shining radiantly through the fog and mist, rivaling even the moon's luminescence.

The centuries pass, and they fall in love. Bright burns their passion, the birth of stars and comets gaining form out of nothingness. Patient and longstanding is their devotion, two stars co-orbiting, rejoicing when they draw near to each other and waiting out the long stretches of time when they are far from one another.

 **Two – Fall from Grace**

Heaven is immortal, but not timeless. Their love is made known to the Heavenly Emperor, and his fury is incendiary, flames licking at the clouds in wrath. He orders the common Cowherd cast out of heaven as a mortal. His own son he condemns to toil without end every day, using his skills to weave the fiery hues of the sunrise and sunset, heralding the early morning sun and saluting its evening descent into the sea.

The Weaver fulfills the letter of his command but not the spirit. His heart is not in it, because it has left heaven with the Cowherd. The colors fade rapidly to dull blues and midnight black every day, and his grief pervades the earth, cloying like a thick, impenetrable fog.

 **Three – The Cowherd on Earth**

The Cowherd is reborn into a poor earthly family with no knowledge of his past life, and his parents die while he is still a boy. He grows up in the care of his brother and sister-in-law, who are not kind to him, and his only friends are animals: the family's water buffalo and a flying lemur.

Eventually, he runs away with his animal friends, and they make a meager living working in the rice fields. It is a miserable existence, but not more so than the Weaver's, alone with his memories to face eternity. One day, however, the monotony is broken when the water buffalo suddenly speaks.

"Tonight, go to the hot springs of Blue Lotus Lake, at the edge of the horizon. There, you will meet someone very familiar to you."

 **Four – Reunion at Blue Lotus Lake**

Now, the Cowherd has no idea who the water buffalo is referring to, but when livestock start talking to you, it's either a sign you're going crazy or the universe is trying to send you a message, so he listens. To his surprise, the water buffalo transforms into a magnificent sky bison, and so the Cowherd goes with the flying lemur and the sky bison, not knowing what to expect.

They arrive at the steaming pool, its waters warm and rejuvenating, and the mischievous flying lemur brings him a silk robe, rumpled and worn, clearly just shed by some unfortunate bather who now has no clothes. He scolds the lemur and sets out to find the owner and return their clothes.

As he stumbles through the misty cover rising around the lake, a sudden blast of fire preludes the caustic address: "Who dares to trespass here?"

The voice takes him back through the fog of centuries, when he first heard it lulling him to sleep after a long day's work, and his airbending powers remembered, he clears the mist away. Before him, waist-deep in the healing waters, stands his love, starry resplendence reflected in the twinkle of the pool.

 **Five – Found Out**

They pass the days in bliss, having lost each other for so long. Blue Lotus Lake is where the Weaver goes to relax at the end of every day, exhausted from his toil, and where the two of them rekindle their love with heated touches and long kisses, the deep mist shielding them and letting them give voice to the unquenchable pleasure of their reunion.

The Weaver's flame is lit anew, and with renewed vigor, he weaves the sky in vermilion and gold, flecked with deep rose and shy lilac. The Cowherd helps him, drawing wisps of clouds across the sky that enhance the sunrise and flood the sunset with such wondrous patterns that all who see them stop to ponder the cause of these changes.

Among these is the Heavenly Emperor, who quickly realizes that there can be only one reason: the lovers have been reunited. In his livid rage, he sends a heavenly escort to seize the Weaver and bring him back to be imprisoned away from the Cowherd.

The Cowherd will not be parted from his love, and riding his loyal bison, he tears up the sky in pursuit, almost catching up to them when suddenly, the Emperor himself appears and with a flash of his magic hairpin, rends the heavens in twain, creating the Milky Way.

 **Six – Reunion on Lemur Bridge**

The lovers gaze helplessly at each other across the giant, unpassable chasm, the distance between them growing ever larger, and with it, their grief multiplies, echoing through the realms. No longer is the sunrise illuminated in breathtaking golden tones, and midnight's pitch-black cover drops soon after sunset. The heavens are bathed in eternal grey without hope of respite, and the whole world mourns their loss.

The Cowherd looks skyward from earth in despair, wondering how he can ever see the Weaver again, but this time, his flying lemur has the solution. The lemur and thousands of its friends build a bridge made of their overlapping wings, long enough to span the gorge and allow the Cowherd to cross and embrace his love once more.

At last, the Heavenly Emperor is moved by their love, and he allows them to meet on the bridge for one night, dotted with stars in joyous celebration. So it is that every year, on the seventh day of the seventh month, the Milky Way galaxy is visible across the sky, and if you listen closely, you can hear the Cowherd and the Weaver tenderly reuniting across the flying lemur bridge, cherishing this one night that they are allotted.

 **Seven – Turtle Duck Boat Ride**

"And so they lived happily ever after," Aang concludes.

"How is that 'happily ever after' if they only get to see each other once a year?" Zuko asks.

"It's the story of us," Aang says simply, "and I like to think that we end happily, one day."

His voice is wistful, and Zuko hears in it the longing of their necessary separation: Zuko attending to the affairs of the Fire Nation and Aang guiding the fledgling Air Nation in the ways of their forefathers, circling each other regularly but never close enough to touch.

"One day," he promises, "after Izumi grows up, after the new Air Nomads learn the ropes… I will come to you, and we'll no longer be apart."

He scoots himself across the leather seat to rest against Aang's side, head on his shoulder, and together, they listen to the whisper of the reunited lovers across the Milky Way, backlit by the brilliance of Harmony Tower.

Even if they have only one night together out of the year, even if their respective positions in life keep them apart, the promise of the future sustains them, and they wait for the day that that promise becomes reality.

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 **A/N** : For this fic, I tried to use a more restrictive, explicatory style typical of traditional storytelling. As a nod to the festival date, I limited it to seven sections of seven sentences each. You can read more about the legend and traditions here: gbtimes dot com/qixi-festival-and-story-chinese-valentines-day

On this day, couples typically go stargazing, and girls may pray to the Weaver Girl to grant them skills in traditionally feminine arts like sewing or cooking (don't know if this happens much anymore, hehe). This cooking video by Li Ziqi is one of my favorite examples of the crafty pastries that are made to celebrate this romantic day: www dot youtube dot com/watch?v=BvisneA-AXM

I chose to play with the A:tla canon in this case as well. I decided that maybe Zuko raised Izumi after he and Mai broke up, and the Harmonic Convergence happened ~80 years earlier. Aang KO'd Vaatu just like in LoK, resulting in the Air Nation being reborn again. So Zuko and Aang have to deal with the aftermath of all that, and they can't really be together :( but one day, they will! =)


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